The reappearance of the Colbert character apparently enflamed corporate lawyers from his old employer Comedy Central, enough for them to claim the character was their "intellectual property," and thus no longer belonged to the man who created him.
Right now it is not clear what the motivation for the legal move is because both CBS and Comedy Central are refusing to comment either on or off the record. (Viacom, Comedy Central's corporate owner, referred questions back to the cable network.) That only raises questions about why Comedy Central would take such provocative and hostile action against one of the biggest stars in its history -- never mind one who is now starring on CBS, its corporate sibling. It would seem to send a signal to the creative community: you bring your talents here at the risk of seeing them appropriated.
The decision is a bizarre replay of the similarly mind-boggling stand taken by NBC in 1993 when David Letterman left that network for CBS. At that time, those two sides, at least, were ferociously contentious, in contrast to this situation, in which Colbert seemed to leave Comedy Central with hugs and kisses all around. NBC insisted Letterman's work belonged to them, not him. The theory espoused was that they might someday sell his re-runs somewhere, but the widespread interpretation was that this was an effort to stick it to Letterman. Cont.
Story from - CNN
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